This is my beloved Son

This is my beloved Son

The Gospels are more than just a biography of Jesus that ends with his death and resurrection, writes Jamie Lavery

Easter weekend is the highlight of our year. We will worship with local churches on Good Friday. We will gather in the resurrection hope of Easter Sunday.

Listening to the testimonies of transformed lives as new believers are baptised.

Being reminded that we have become children of God because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. And all because God has loved us.

The Easter weekend is the pinnacle for each of the four Gospels. It is what they have been building up to all the way along.

However, there is a danger that we read the Gospels as Jesus’ biography that suddenly ends with his death and resurrection – leaving the rest of the New Testament to fill in the gaps and explain to us what happened and why. But that would miss exactly why the Gospels were written. Each of the Gospels reveals to us what God is doing in the person of Jesus so that when we come to the cross and the resurrection of Jesus, we see it as ultimately achieving all he had been doing during his ministry.

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is introduced to us as the Messiah, God’s Son. He preaches that the kingdom of God, his rule and reign, has now come.

And so, when we see Jesus drive out an unclean spirit, heal the sick, touch and cleanse an unclean leper, forgive sin, call a tax collector, and welcome Gentiles, we are seeing what Jesus accomplishes for us through his cross and resurrection.

Jesus sets us free from evil, heals us, makes us clean, forgives our sins, and calls and welcomes us, Jews and Gentiles, of every ethnicity and background.

History and prophecy in one parable

Recently as I was reading Mark’s Gospel, one of the narratives surrounding the cross stood out for me – Jesus the Beloved Son.

In Mark 12:1-12 Jesus has entered his final week. And upon entering Jerusalem, he tells a parable. I would encourage you to read it this Easter. It is a parable of a vineyard that will describe the events that will soon happen.

Israel is the vineyard, a frequent image of Israel in the Old Testament. The owner of the vineyard is God. God has given them land. He expects them to be fruitful. He has entrusted it to tenants, his people.

And the owner expects to see some fruit. He sends his servants, the prophets, to collect it. But they are beaten and treated shamefully, and some are killed. Finally, the owner sends his own beloved Son. The one whom they should recognise as the Son and obey him. But like those before him, they beat and kill his beloved Son. They do this to take his inheritance. The parable closes with the owner, God, bringing judgment on those farmers, killing them and giving the vineyard to others.

This parable summarises Israel’s history. And now God has sent his own beloved Son, Jesus.

Using the term ‘the beloved Son’ is certainly not accidental but a deliberate description of who Jesus has always been. At his baptism in Mark 1, the Holy Spirit descends and the Father speaks, saying, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.” Then, in Mark 9, at his transfiguration, the Father says, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him!” This is now the third time in Mark that Jesus is called the beloved Son.

Our inheritance cannot be taken by force

Jesus is the Father’s beloved Son. The language is strikingly similar to the description of Abraham and Isaac. Isaac was Abraham’s beloved or only son, (Genesis 22:2).

This language of the beloved Son in Mark reveals something more than the love Abraham had for Isaac. It shows the eternal love of God. It demonstrates the very nature of who God is. That love has always existed between the Father and Son in the Holy Spirit. That God is love. And his love is displayed through the Son

Isaac was the inheritor of the promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3: “I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you… and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. And in Genesis 17:5: “I will make you the Father of many nations.”

Jesus is the ultimate beloved Son, the Messiah, through whom this promised inheritance of salvation comes. The inheritance the tenants in the parable think they can seize by force and violence.

They don’t listen to the beloved Son; they don’t obey him, or do what is right. Instead, they take the Son and kill him. There is a striking parallel with Isaac, who Abraham was prepared to sacrifice.But unlike Isaac, this beloved Son was killed. He was not spared. But in the giving of his life he becomes the cornerstone, so that there is salvation in the beloved Son for all peoples and races, for Jew and Gentile.

Because of the beloved Son laying down his life, those who believe in him are united with him, and they also become beloved children of God and experience the same love the Father has for the Son. The inheritance that Jesus, the beloved Son, has obtained for us is that we are adopted as children of God – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. What the tenants tried to take by force is ours by faith in the beloved Son of God.

This Easter, as you contemplate the cross and resurrection of Jesus, I pray you will know the love of God filling your heart and experience the adoption cry of the Spirit, ‘Abba Father’. I pray you will hear afresh the words the Father also says to you as you are united with Christ: “You are my beloved Son.”

laverys Jamie Lavery is husband to Sophie, Dad to Lily and Judah and Pastor of the Elim church in Crawley